December 7, 2010 (Part 4)

Part “quatro” – that’s 4

Thanksgiving ended well.  We spent the evening with the elders.  They helped us choose a name for the dog.  We settled on Amber.  Did you know that you can google “girl dog names”?  And also, “girl ghetto names”?  Devan thought we should name her a cool black girl name (we all know he is a “brother” at heart), but we all could agree on Amber. 

Saturday, Devan and Rick went bike shopping.  They managed to find Devan a great bike (Christmas & birthday present).  Now, Devan will be training for his California bike ride this next summer. He and Jared have this crazy plan to ride from Mapleton to Southern California – We’ll see!!  While they were out shopping Kaylie and I decided that we should change the dogs name to Kia (because she looks and acts like a coyote). We started calling her Kia and the name stuck – she seemed to respond to it.  The dog has warmed up to Kaylie, but not really anyone else.  She is very sketchy – hides a lot, runs away if we walk in the room, cowers – it’s very sad.  At the end of the day we realized that the Portuguese word for “shut up” is very similar to Kia (could be why she seemed to respond to it, remember the lady at the dog pound?) – so we changed it back to Amber.

Sunday, we left the dog in the rec room while we went to church.  It’s a big room with a concrete floor that has a ping pong table in it, next to the pool.  Devan was home with her and we told him to check on her once in a while because we didn’t know how she’d do locked in a room by herself.  Well, we don’t know exactly what happened, but after Devan had checked on her once, she escaped.  Devan saw her out of the corner of his eye and she took off up the driveway.  He looked for her for a while on his bike, but only saw her once behind a big fence.  We figured she was gone.  Kaylie was VERY sad.  She was also a little sick that day and had fallen asleep in the car on the way home from church, so she didn’t have the energy to go look for her.  Well, that evening, with Kaylie being sick and it being cold, we decided to cozy up by the fire and watch a church movie.  During the movie I glanced outside because there was some movement.  It took me a second to realize – it was Amber!!  She had come back.  We were shocked.  We had thought, for sure, that she had found freedom and we’d never see her again.  But, I guess she likes our love (and being fed).

Lastly, I want to tell you about Antonio.  Antonio is a young guy in our branch.  He is 27 years old.  The first time we met him (on our first Sunday at church) he seemed so sad.  I could tell that he’d probably had something in his life that was difficult.  Well, he wanted us to come over after church this past Sunday to meet his aunt.  Now, the Elder’s that got transferred just after we moved here had told us about Antonio’s aunt.  They said that she was crazy; that she was very protective of Antonio, and that she wouldn’t let him come to church for the longest time.  They told us that she would never let the missionaries come over and that if they stopped by she’d yell at them to go away and not let Antonio come outside.  So, having all of this information, I was surprised that he wanted us to come over and meet his aunt.  Also, we had found out that Antonio suffered from depression, I guess that’s why he looked so sad that first time we met him.  Well, we took Antonio home after church and went in to meet his aunt.  She was a very nice lady.  Not at all what I was expecting.  She had a table full of framed family photos and we enjoyed learning about her family.  We found out that she had 20 siblings – OH MY GOSH!!  Can you believe that?  20!!!  We think they were from a mixture of parents, but Rick couldn’t really figure out what she was saying.  We also learned about Antonio’s life.  Turns out, this aunt rescued him from the hospital, where he had been put because of his emotional condition.  The reason he suffers from depression is very sad.  He is originally from Africa.  He came here with his mother when he was a teenager.  His father died in Africa, within that year, but they don’t know how.  That same year, after coming to Portugal, his mother died of a tumor in the brain and then his sister committed suicide.  All of this happened when he was 17.  He never said, but I’m under the impression that he was probably suicidal also.  That was 10 years ago.  About 5 years ago he started coming back to church.  The church didn’t have any record of his baptism, although he thought he’d been baptized, as a child, in Africa.  He remembered, from his childhood, 2 missionaries teaching and baptizing him.  When he saw the missionaries, on the street, 5 years ago, he started coming to church.  He was baptized again, because of the lack of records.  We can tell he still struggles with depression – some days he just looks so sad.  It was good to be able to spend some time, at his home, with him and his aunt.

Chau for now!!

Love you and miss you (and juicy, crispy turkey skin)

Denise